Making the mother tinctures

Knowledge of the plants used to make the Bach Flower Remedies was passed by Dr Bach to his assistants Nora Weeks and Victor Bullen, and they in turn passed on this information to John Ramsell who has entrusted it to his daughter Judy Howard. Some of the plants used grow in the semi-wild gardens around the house, while others come from the countryside round about. The trustees know of and still use locations first identified by Dr Bach himself in the 1930s.

Two methods are used to make the Bach Flower Remedies. Most of the more delicate flowers are prepared using the sun method, which involves floating the blooms in pure water for a number of hours. More woody plants, or flowers which bloom when the sun is weak, are prepared by boiling for half an hour. In both cases full-strength 40% brandy is used as a preservative, mixed 50/50 with the prepared tincture. Drops from the preserved mother tincture are further diluted in brandy to make the stock bottles that can be bought in the shops.

Up until a few years ago the Bach Centre bottled and diluted most of its mother tinctures at Mount Vernon itself. But as world demand grew for Dr Bach's remedies it became impossible to continue doing this, so the trustees arranged for the bottling and distribution of the remedies to be performed by an independent company called Nelsons, leaving the Bach Centre free to go on with its main tasks: making the mother tinctures, educating people in the use of the remedies and providing free help and advice to those who need it.